#thenardier tries to play at being meek conciliatory and polite to authorities

[secretmellowblog]

I’ve read Les Mis a couple times now and I’m always blown away by just how kind Valjean is. Like every time I reread it I’m a little more impressed by the fact that he manages to be a good caring dude even while carrying around his metric ass-ton of troubles.

Yeah, it’s so good! And so complicated too? Idk the more I reread Les Mis, the more I enjoy the way it dives into “the politics of politeness,” the difference between being kind and being polite…and the way people like Jean Valjean are violently forced to behave in excessively ‘polite’ meek conciliatory ways in order to escape abuse.

And again, that’s something that really strikes me about Valjean’s story, and his complicated brand of kindness, in particular?

He’s genuinely a kind compassionate person; but, because of his status as a convict, he’s also forced to be excessively conciliatory to people like police officers who have authority over him, out of fear of punishment and torture. Especially before he earned his money, he had a social obligation to cringe and fawn before authority figures, to prevent them from hurting him. He’s gentle to people out of genuine love and sympathy, but he’s also often forced to be polite out of fear. And while he is a genuinely a sweet gentle compassionate person, you’re often forced to wonder: would Valjean behave with such excessive meekness if he wasn’t living in a state of paranoia and terror where a single ‘wrong move’ could make him suspicious, and lead to his imprisonment, torture, and death?

The lines between Valjean’s genuine kindness and the forced mask of politeness that’s been violently imposed on him can get really blurred.

And it’s telling that some of Valjean’s actually kindest moments are the times when he risks arrest and has himself branded a criminal, in order to save people- the moments where he sacrifices the approval of ‘polite society’ to do something genuinely compassionate.

#Les mis #thank you for the ask!!! #but yeah sorry I see the words Jean Valjean and words spill out #he’s just a little guy!!!!! #an unbearably sad beast #I do want to write a whole post on the whole ‘enforced conciliatory politeness’ in Les mis thing #because it’s also a huge thing with thenardier and javert #thenardier tries to play at being meek conciliatory and polite to authorities #but he is Bad at it #he’s awful at it #he’s terrible at lying and pretending to respect them #but he’s also right that it’s dehumanizing to even have to? #to cringe and fawn and lick boots in order to survive #Javert of course is very happy to lick boots #it’s genuinely his favorite thing to do #but now I’m rambling #XD